The City of Huntsville
is part of Walker County in east Texas approximately 70 miles north of Houston,
and 170 miles south of Dallas/Fort Worth via Interstate 45. Huntsville was
founded in 1835, and the population today is about 36.000. A big university,
more than 70 churches - and 7 prisons belong to Huntsville. The most famous
"son" of the city in the last century was Sam Houston, the founder of the
state Texas. In rememberence of him the university is named after him - and
there is this white alabaster-statue of Sam Houston near the Interstate,
as tall as a church-tower and with a weight of 60 tons.

For more than 150 years Huntsville is the "prison-city" of Texas. When Austin
had been chosen to be the capital of Texas, as a compensation Huntsville
was made to the center of the texan execution of the sentence. Today every
third or fourth citizen of Huntsville is a prison-inmate - the information
varies between 9.000 and 15.000 inmates who are in the prisons of Huntsville.
Therefore the TDCJ (Texas Department of Criminal Justice) is the biggest
employer, and only 2 % of the citizens of Huntsville are out of work.

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In Huntsville or its vicinity there
is also the Death Row of Texas. About 270 prisoners are awaiting their execution
- sometimes waiting more than 20 years. The average time is over 10 years.
The shortest time on Death Row prior to execution was 252 days, the longest
31 years. 31 of the 50 states of the USA have the Death Penalty in their
law, but in executions Texas is clearly number one of all the states. Since
the reintroduction of the Death Penalty in the USA, Texas did execute 530
human beings in the time from 1982 until October 2015 - 37 in the year 1997,
35 in 1999, and 40 (new record) in 2000.

Some dates about the history of the Death Penalty in Huntsville/Texas: Hanging
was means of execution between 1819 and 1923, then Texas authorized the use
of the electric chair. The chair - called "Old Sparky" - was built by inmates,
and 361 human beings lost their life between 1924 and 1964, being executed
with this electric chair. Today the chair can be seen in the Prison Museum
of Huntsville. When capital punishment was declared "cruel and unusual
punishment" by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1972, there were 45 men on Death
Row in Texas and 7 in county jails with a death sentence. All of the sentences
were commuted to life sentences by the Governor of Texas. After the
reintroduction of the Death Penalty in the USA in 1976, Texas adopted a year
later the lethal injection as means of execution - which was used first in
1982.

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For the lethal injection the condemned man (or woman) is strapped unto a
gurney, with needles for injection in both arms. First some water with common
salt shall clean the veins. When the inmate has spoken his last words, the
executioner starts the procedure and in former times three different chemicals
flow into the body: 1. a very high dose of the narcotic Pentobarbital, that
makes the man fall into coma; 2. Pancuronium Bromide, a muscle-relaxant which
causes the collapse of diaphragm and lungs; 3. Potassium Chloride to stop
the heart beat. After the tremendous problems US-states had in the recent
years to obtain the chemicals for executions, Texas changed its rules and
uses only one drug nowadays: Pentobarbital.

Witnesses of the execution are some officials of the media, and up to five
relatives of the condemned inmate. They stand behind glass, but very close
to the gurney. Since 1996 relatives of the victims are also allowed to witness
the execution. Therefore the witness-room was divided with a wall into two
parts. To avoid any trouble both different "parties" are strictly separated
from each other.

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The Walls Unit

The executions take place in the oldest prison of Huntsville which is called
"Walls Unit" (today also: "Huntsville Unit"). The Walls Unit is in the very
center of Huntsville. Until 1965 the inmates with a death sentence also lived
there. But when the number of death sentences increased, Death Row became
a part of "Ellis Unit One" which is about 12 miles away from the city of
Huntsville.

Ellis Unit One

After a failed attempt to escape of some inmates in fall of 1998, Death Row
was moved to the "Terrell Unit" in Livingston, which meanwhile was renamed
into "Polunsky Unit". In the Polunsky Unit the inmates live in total isolation.
More about the conditions in Polunsky is to be read here:
http://www.deathrow.at/welcometohell/.

Polunsky Unit (f.k.a. Terrell Unit)

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The citizens of Huntsville appreciate the friendly atmosphere of their community
- and in fact they are hospitable and ready to help. The many executions
often are hardly noticed, because meanwhile they are common in Huntsville
- as common as the special offer of the "Killer-Burger" at the
fastfood-restaurant, which is located just across the street from the Walls
Unit:

Only the inmate-number and the date of death is to be found on the white
crosses - and an "X" when the inmate was executed.Meanwhile this
practice was changed and the deceased or executed prisoners get a tombstone
with their name: